Left Behind
by AnimeDAngel
Summary: Lance loved his team he did, but he was also aware they tended to forget about him. As he just stood there and watched the castle leave with no way of contacting them.
1. Chapter 1

Lance loved his team he did, but he also knew they sometimes forgot about him. Today was a good example of that. They had gone down planetside to search for some food supplies, and everyone split up. He kept cracking jokes and eventually Pidge muted him. Which helped to lead to his current predicament, he was stuck on the planet and the castle left about four hours ago, Pidge didn't just mute him she removed any audio going in or out. Lance's guess was that they thought he was on board when he wasn't. He just stood there as he watched them portal away, no way of contacting them, and based off the plans earlier they'd be a good three galaxies over by the time they noticed he was gone.

The sun was setting and the plant was made up of mostly dense jungle, it was humid and hot even as it became dark. Lance knew it would be a while before anyone came for him so he started to hunt for a spot where he could camp for the night. He pushed forward through some vines and trees to find a hidden tree grove. He did a sweep of the perimeter and used the vines around the grove to hide it better from the outside but allowed him to see was beyond the tree line. He took his helmet off and checked his rations.

5 ration bars and 3 water packs. If he was here for any longer then a day he would need to hunt and find a way to purify some water. He didn't have anything else in his armour's compartments, everything else was in Blue who was currently offline in the castle with everyone else.

"I have the worse luck." He hunkered down for the night.

Not even an hour later and Lance had to move from where he was. A giant raptor-like creature had found him and was currently chasing him around the jungle. Lance looked back for a brief moment to see where it was, big mistake as suddenly there was no ground beneath his feet. His eye shut and hands made their way to protect his head as his helmet was back in the grove. Soon pain radiated through his head as he rolled down the cliff side. His side rammed into something jutting out of cliff side, his eye's opened briefly before the darkness enveloped his vision and the pain subsided.

The next time Lance opened his eyes, the moon was high in the sky and all the pain from before came radiating back. He quickly checked his head and discovered no blood his back and chest were in pain but nothing penetrated his armour nor was the under armour sticking to him in an ungodly blood like way. He chances one look at his leg and knew it was broken, however, the armour was acting like a splint. Lance knew he couldn't stay put as there was growling above him, he'd bet his other leg that that creature was still hunting him up there. Lance pushed himself up into a standing position and forced himself forward despite the pain. There was a stream ahead where he could cool off a bit, the humidity was horrible, but that plan was put on the back burner, he could hear some loose pebbles tumbling down but he was hoping to any god that would listen it wasn't what he thought. Looking back Lance could see the raptor creature making its way down and this time two others had joined. So instead of stopping at the stream, he limped himself through it and to the other side where a flat field of tall grass was. Running was hard but he needed that head start on them. He refused to look back this time and briefly remember that he has dropped his Bayard somewhere while fighting the one earlier in the night. He was halfway across the field when he saw the giant tree that could have easily been a mountain, he mind numbly remembered he couldn't stop moving and despite the broken leg he picked up his pace to try and reach the tree then climb it. Though he was kind of aware of the fact that if they were anything like raptors were depicted on earth there was a possibility they could climb the tree but it wouldn't stop him. As the tree got closer so did the Raptors, one came up beside him and tried to bite his side but lance dodged by jumping forward, he landed weirdly which in turn broke the ankle of his already broken leg. The jump allowed him to finally reach the tree. The roots were giant and had just enough space for him to pass through but not the things chasing him. Quickly making his way to the centre of the roots, Lance leaned back to catch his breath.

Black dots darted across his vision but he blinked it away. The Raptors, as he decided to name them, were able to shove their nose in but could do nothing further, they scratched at the roots and tried clawing their way in. He could finally relax, or so he thought as something bite him and his vision danced a once more. Once again, he was knocked unconscious and that was how the team found him, 24 hours later.


	2. Chapter 2

The castle was unusually quiet, no one could quite put their finger on it. Lance hadn't shown up for dinner which was odd but expected as everyone was tried and he hadn't really come to dinner all too often anymore. Shiro had sent the others to bed and was making his rounds when it dawned on him as to why it was so quiet. Making his way to Pidge's room, knowing full well she was still awake, the worry setting in. Without knocking he entered.

"I didn't do it." For a moment Shiro was confused, he quickly put the question of 'what' away.

"Did you turn on Lance's com system before we left." Pidge looked confused and walked over to her desk, as to how Shiro will never know, she quickly checked her suits system and colour drained from her face.

"I may have accidentally cut all audio from Lance. Outgoing and incoming"

"Shit" that meant he never heard the order to come home.

"I'm sorry Shiro."

"We'll talk about this later, we need to get back there."

Informing Allura that Lance had been left behind was unpleasant even more so when she found out the reason for the mistake was Pidge.

"How… no, I do not want you to explain why his com was turned off. Blue is offline so she can't just rescue him like Red does with Keith." Things like 'had to take that blast' and 'how immature could one get.' Was tossed out once in orbit, Pidge started to track his suit using his com. The castle descended down to the planet surface and the hunt for Lance began. They decided that looking for him would be easier on foot and all 4 paladins left.

For it to be as simple as tracking his coms was a far-fetched wish. Once they made it to the location all they found was his helmet and a ration bar. The scene looked like he left in a rush, and the worry Shiro had turned to fear, which subsided a bit when they found tracks and followed them took them. 20 minutes of walking and no sign of Lance but they found his Bayard, looked like he was trying to fight off whatever was after him, there were scorch marks on the trees his shots hit. The tracks seemed unreadable till Hunk found some leading away. Another 40 minutes and they came across a cliff.  
"Please tell me he didn't go down there." Keith's voice was laced with fear. Shiro swallowed his own panic before answering.

"His tracks along with the creatures just stops here. I think we need to go down and check." Using their jetpacks, and safely make their way down. There was no blood so far which was either a good thing or a bad thing. They found a small stream where there were another one of their water packs, as Shiro picked it up he found it was full.  
"It must have fallen out of his suit." Shiro fear turned to anxiety and he was in full-blown space dad mode it's nearly been 24hrs since they forgot him here, and every second more he wasn't found meant he was hurt, captured or eaten.

"Look more tracks going into the field." Pidge was delighted at her discovery and rushed forwards. Hunk reached out and pulled her back.

"Yellow's on her way and honestly whatever was Lance was running from could still be out there." Hunk was being the logical one but one look at him you could tell he was a mess. Pidge looked at Shiro like Hunk was crazy and to keep moving forward despite the logic. Shiro took a deep breathe what good am I to Lance or any of them if I fall apart now.

"Hunk is right Pidge, the two of you stay here and till Yellow arrives. Keith, you and I will head in just case he's in the field, be ready for anything." The others nodded and Keith took out his Bayard the two of us entered the field and surge forward through the grass, about halfway through Yellow went overhead and was searching through the sky. It was then that Shiro noticed the mountain like tree, as he went to point it out to Keith, Keith held out another rations bar from the castle he found on the ground.

-Shiro's POV-  
As Keith and I got closer to the tree line we could hear growls and what sounds like jaws snapping close. I dragged Keith to the ground and used the environment to hide from them. Keith's hand suddenly shot out and was pointing to the area these raptor-like creatures where. Blood. I went cold, there was a possibility that it was Lance's but we couldn't be sure. They seemed to be circling the tree's roots every once in a while, shoving their head in. Two of the creatures had purple reptile-like skin and one of them had a deep blue marking on its head. It also looked like there was some armoured plating on the top of their heads, backs, and underbellies. Once all three were at the back of the tree the two of us darted out of hiding and into the roots. There we found another water pack and pushed further in. He had to be here somewhere.

In the centre of roots was Lance tangled in two snake-like creatures, with what looked like rattles on their heads. There was some liquid that seemed like saliva dripping down on top of them; I didn't want to but I knew looking up another creature was going to be there, and that creature just so happened to be something he remembers Coran stating was poisonous and was an avoid at all costs.

"Keith."

"I know."

"Don't be impulsive."

"I'm trying."

"Pidge do you have our location?"

"Yeah. Did you find him?"

"Tell Coran to have a pod ready, and some antidote to that creature with poison salvia; the bird snake thing. We currently have three raptor-like creatures circling the tree, two snake-like creatures with what I think is rattles on their heads, on top of an unconscious Lance and that other creature is above dropping saliva on him."

"the poisonous kind?" Hunk did nothing to hide his fear, and I instinctively reached out to Keith to close his helmet then mine.

"Ok, Keith they're asleep we should be able to get them off him but we can't get near the spit. I want you ready to chop off their heads." Keith nodded but his fear and worry for Lance were evident in his eye's. Lance was a part of the only family he knows and losing him was not something I thought Keith could handle at the moment. I carefully stepped forward to try and reach our missing blue, carefully untangled Lance and started to pull him towards me but the creatures woke up and their heads did indeed rattle, like a rattlesnake. As it lunched forward Keith chopped off its head, then the next all that was left was the poisonous bird like snake from above, which was awake and not pleased with them. Keith throws his Galran dagger at the creature, and it landed right in the centre between its eyes. Keith pulled out the dagger and put it away, god knows where, after quickly shaking the blood. I pulled Lance into my arms.

"We have Lance, his ankle is broken, there's blood coming from under the armour around it."

"Hunk has cleared out the raptor things. We're landing now." I sent Keith first then followed, at the moment all I needed was to see all of my team in front of me and make sure Lance is ok.  
Once back at the castle Coran got to work removing his armour. His chest was purple and his back and side had bruises, but his broken ankle turned out to also be a broken leg. Two different breaks, Coran had to time to clean the only open wound and put him in the pod.

"Once he's out he'll be delirious from the poison. He'll have to stay in bed in till it's out of his system." Coran held up a round cream container.

"Once ever 8 varga this needs to be applied to his chest. I will say this though, even though he is delirious anything he says is very much serious. We won't know what he see's but he is responding, as though it is actually happening."

Everyone nodded in understanding and I set up a rotation to watch over Lance once he was out of the pod.


	3. Chapter 3

When Lance woke next to say he was confused would be an understatement, looking around he recognized his room on the castle. So, they found me good. However, something seemed off, the room was much darker then he remembered. He tried to get up and move to his door, but something was stopping him, he thought it might be his blankets but he was on top of them not under. So, what was stopping him from moving?

" _They don't want to see you."_

 _"Who's there?"_ the thing stopping him pulled him closer, wrapping its arms around him like a hug.

 _"you're worthless to them, a sorry excuse for a paladin."_ He tried to pull away but it kept a tight grip on him.

 _"Don't you believe me? They don't really like you, it's all lies."_

 _"Prove it."_ Suddenly the pressure stopping him from leaving let him go, so he moved to the door.

When he left his room, he was suddenly in the dining hall, his friends were laughing and enjoying dinner. Never once did they notice him, then Keith spoke.

 _"He never listens, and he talks so much. Are you sure we can't replace him?"_

 _"I would love to, but where would we find a new blue paladin around here?" Allura stated like it was frustrating that she even had to look for another._

 _"If he just stopped joking around and was serious for once we'd actually get our mission done. His training is so far behind the others." He could hear the disappoint in Shiro's voice._

Lance was shocked by what he heard Pidge and Hunk weren't defending him either, they were absorbed in their latest project.

 _"They left you on that planet, so they could get rid of you."_

 _"I'm hindering the team. Why would they leave me there, then come back for me? Why am I on the ship if they don't want me around?"_

 _"Someone has to pilot Blue in till the new paladin is found."_ The voice reasoned

 _"Allura should pilot her then, she's the better paladin. I'm useless, a waste of space."_ Lance was back in his room curled up in his blanket. The thing warping itself around him once more.

 _"I always knew. That I was the weakest link, I'm just a replacement, a placeholder. I'm not a real paladin, I'm just a cargo pilot. Worthless, Blue deserves better than me."_ Lance drifted off again as a pressure was applied to his chest. Something soothing, and relaxing.

 _"Someone as useless and worthless as me doesn't deserve to be relaxing."_ Unaware the words left his lips Lance closed his eyes again. Feeling like he the forgettable person he is, he allowed himself to drift off.

 _"No, you don't, you shouldn't even be breathing."_

…Meanwhile…..

They knew he'd be delirious once out of the pod, they just thought it wouldn't happen quite this quick. Hunk had caught him when he fell out, he tried to move away but Hunk didn't let go as they tried to move him to the med bay for his first treatment. His eyes opened and Shiro tried to speak to him, to coax him into walking where they wanted.

"Who's there?" They stopped trying to move him. The fear he might be blind scared them for a seek.

"Lance? It's us, buddy, how are you feeling?" they waited a few more seconds before his replay came.

"Prove it." It came out in a defiant whisper, but they all heard because of how quiet the room was.

"He must be seeing things." Pidge's quiet statement was met with nods, he was more willing to move now so they migrated him to the med bay and he seemed to just stand there for a while, Coran was fetching the cream he had shown them day's earlier. Lance looked ready to cry, whatever he was seeing no one liked it. Lance moved himself to the bed in the room, Keith put a blanket over him knowing full well just how cold the pods were.

"I'm hindering the team. Why would they leave me there, then come back for me? Why am I on the ship if they don't want me around?" Everyone stopped moving as his words sank in.

"I'm sorry Lance." Pidge replied, her voice shaking aware he probably couldn't hear right.

"Allura should pilot her, she's the better paladin. I'm useless, a waste of space." Allura had just walked in at that moment, and she froze in the doorway. The words she was going to say died before she breathed life into them. They watched as Lance pulled the blanket closer to himself.

"I always knew. That I was the weakest link, I'm just a replacement, a placeholder. I'm not a real paladin, I'm just a cargo pilot. Worthless, Blue deserves better than me." Allura turned around and left the room, Hunk and Pidge were reduced to tears, and Keith looked ready to murder someone.

"Coran the cream?" Shiro own voice was shaky but he had to hold it together, one of his own needed him right now and that was what he was going to do. Once Coran started applying the cream Lance drifted off he was laying down and Hunk, at some point, went and hugged him. As he drifted off one final sentence left his lips, causing Shiro's blood to good cold

"Someone as useless and worthless as me doesn't deserve to be relaxing."

"You have every right to relax Lance. You're not worthless." Somehow Coran's words didn't ease, the team at all.


	4. Chapter 4

Lance had slept through the night, and everyone slept in his room, each rotating watch in case he woke up. However, after a full day of Lance hallucinating Shiro had decided to send the others off to do other work and rest. He sat with Lance in his room and listened to the conversation, which was heartbreaking to say the least. He applied the cream when needed but as Lance slept again Shiro thought about what had led to the recent events. Normally when Lance wasn't around everyone was on edge, but the last couple of months the team had been forgetting about him more and more often and Blue was usually the one to remind them or make them aware he was missing. She was refusing to let anyone near him most of the time, now they knew why. At some point in their adventure Lance began to doubt himself, Shiro thought back to when they rescued Slav, and in amongst all the chaos, he heard Lance call himself the seventh wheel of the group. He had meant to address it but they were so busy he never had a chance, still, the question remained. Why were they forgetting about Lance so much?

"You're trying to figure out how we forgot about him?" Shiro looked up to see Coran had entered the room as to when he wasn't sure.

"Yeah, it's odd normally we notice right way but recently." Coran nodded

"The princess and I noticed too we started keeping track of every time he's forgotten and this last month has gotten worse. This recent event has been by far the worse outcome of it though. It was never to the extreme it's been these last 4 months though, he has been forgotten or overlooked before too. Just not as often, usually during downtime and planning." Shiro's face was etched in shock, it's been happening for so long and it only recently got worse.

"Sometimes he did it on purpose, never for very long and primarily when he wasn't feeling a 100% or wanted to be alone. His plans tend to be shut down before he can voice them, resulting in him never bring them up." Shiro felt bad for never noticing before, but the more he thought about it the more aware he became of it. Mornings where he struggled more with training, missed dinner's here and there, more importantly, those nights he would find him walking to or from the hangers.

"How long before the poison is out of his system?"

"Normally I'd say a day or two." Coran seemed to hesitate in finishing his thought

"But?" Coran Sighed knowing he needed to tell Shiro what he knew but didn't have all the answers too.

"But it might take longer. According to the pods' analysis, Lance has been carrying Druid magic residue in his system. There are no records of him fighting one nor do I recall a druid attack recently." Shiro's mind was working overtime to try and process the information just given to him.

"How long till he's better?" was all Shiro's mouth could produce. Coran shrugged his shoulders, picking up the habit from the Garrison Trio.

"I don't know, anywhere from tomorrow to a month from now. If it doesn't kill him first." Shiro's brain had stopped working at that point and could no longer hear anything. There was still the possibility of losing Lance and if not, he'd be stuck in his own personal hell. How was Shiro suppose to protect Lance from something he couldn't see.


	5. Chapter 5

The world was still dark, mucked with grey's and blacks, He was able to make out his actual friends and the vision but the words tended to mould together. There were times when he heard reassuring words and other times the harsh truth.

"The seventh wheel, that's what you are. Why are you even still here, you should leave." The dark laughter echoed off the walls.

"No family wants you. You're useless, a placeholder. Even your own blood hated you." Lance placed his hands on his ears, in an attempt to fend off the voice. He tried to remember his family on Earth and all the happy times but everything was dark, all he remembered was the fire, the sneering face's blaming him.

"It's all your fault."

"The devil lives in you."

"I don't want him, he's cursed."

"No one will take of him, and his godparents also passed. Now what?"

"He'll be a ward of the state."

"Foster homes won't take him."

"You Killed them." The voices were no longer distinguishable, and more of the Dark world surrounding him. Every once in a while, a little dark purple that was almost, murky yellow, puck green, or a deep dark blazing red would approach him. Lance always pulled away from the red, red meant fire, fire meant death, death meant cursed. He closed his eyes and curled in on himself, his nails drawing blood.

"You should bleed, after all the blood on your hands. You should bleed and bleed and bleed, till the devil is gone." Lance started to softly repeated his mother's goodnight wishes, but halfway through the screaming started. The red colour joined him in his dark world and tried to wrap around him, he pulled away and started to cry, his ears hurt from his nails digging in. A pressure was on his arms trying to pull them down; Lance fought against the pressure trying to keep the voice's and screaming out.

"No please No more. NO MORE!" he pushed more against his ears and dug his nails in harder trying to secure their place. The pressure fought harder as the screaming as and voices grew louder. He could feel his cheeks getting wet, and what he guessed was blood dripping down his neck.

After what felt like an entirety, everything went quiet. No more voices, no more screaming, no more red. He was tried and his throat and eyes felt raw. The pressure was still on his arms weighing him down, he allowed his hands to drop to his side. A small whisper floated through the room.

"You'll kill them as well, little devil." He felt like cry but no longer could. He curled into himself and dropped to his side, hoping the world would swallow him whole.

When he woke next all Lance wanted to do was take a shower. The world had no colours in it and was blacker then before, he stood up as his feet stumbled about and made his way to where the door to his bathroom should be. His put his hands in front of him to try and find the shower in his dark world, his fingers came across something small and metallic. He couldn't see what it was, but his fingers recognized the material, it was a small blade. The exact one he used on earth, he played with it a bit numbly allowing the thoughts of what it had felt like back then cross his mind. Eventually, he settled on that his shower could wait and took the blade to his shoulder.


	6. Chapter 6

Lance stood under the shower allowing the hot water to sting his fresh cuts, the blade still sat in his hand. He stared at it as he remembered how his family turned on him, why they turned on him. He remembered the day his mother left him, how she left him in that bed as she faded away. How his father had changed and that he couldn't stand Lance any longer as he was the youngest and the reason for his mother's departure. He remembered the results of that hate and hurt lead to flames, lead to him being left behind. Then he remembered the Garrison how only the nurse truly knew what he went through as she had adopted him just before school started. He remembered how he was treated, a replacement, to someone who was better but washed out. His thoughts then brought him to his current family, how it started with little things and over time it built and built till they began to forget him. He was once again a replacement, he was once again a waste of space. The cycle never stopped, and thus he was brought back to the small little blade that had started all his thoughts. Maybe everyone was right, maybe he should just leave. Once more he pulled the blade along his stomach and tried to push it in deeper then the pressure of the darkness came back place weight on his hand helping him to achieve what everyone wanted. He could feel the smile coming from the dark, then he could feel the cry of something trying to reach out to him, something soothing but also full of anguish. It was someone he knew but he was unsure why his heart sadden at the cry that reached out to him. Did someone actually care?

Keith had just taken on the shift to watch Lance, he never really enjoyed it as Lance always pulled away from him but the others needed their sleep so he took it. He was also worried about Lance, not that he would ever admit to that. He entered Lance's room and checked his bed, no Lance, panic started to set in; there have been times that Lance has wonder away before. Before he could panic though he made his way to the washroom, where he found lance sitting in his clothes with the shower running and a hand around his stomach.

"Lance?" Keith approached carefully but the closer he got the more he panicked, there was blood and his clothes seemed stained with it. His stomach began to bleed and Keith tried to pull his hand away to see where the wound was and how bad, but Lance's hand pressed further in and started to move. It as then Keith realized what was causing the wounds and he tried harder to pull his hand away.

"SHIRO! SHIRO!" Keith knew Shiro moved to the room across from Lance's, everyone moved closer.

"SHIRO! I NEED HELP! Lance, Lance I need you to stop, whatever your using, give it to me." Keith was panicking even more. He couldn't see what Lance was using to hurt himself and the hot water was barring down on them, Lance's hand just kept pressing further in and away from him like something was helping him do this to himself. Then Lance just stopped, Keith quickly moved Lance's hand away from his body and found nothing in his hands. Suddenly a roar echoed through his mind and the hall's, Blue was awake and fixed, which means Lance might be able to hear her again.

"Keith, what happened?"

"He was just sitting here and there was blood, then his stomach was bleeding. He was doing this to himself but there's nothing that could have caused it, Shiro. Nothing was in his hand, and he wouldn't stop, then he did, my guess is blue but I don't know. How can he just get these wounds when there's nothing to cause them, Shiro?" The panic and stress had come across in his voice he knew it but then he felt the wetness on his cheeks. Keith had been blaming himself about all of this, if they had just remembered then Lance wouldn't be in this situation. Now he was just bleeding and looked like it was self-harm.

"Let's get him to the med bay Keith, I'll call Coran maybe he'll have some answers."


End file.
